EVENTS

Some communities make misogynists and harassers unwelcome

Meanwhile, that “Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk” article that I saw yesterday and meant to read and maybe comment on – that article disappeared on account of how Asher Wolf’s site got hacked. Guess what she and the hacker community needed to talk about.

I know a lot the community doesn’t want to talk about this stuff. I know I didn’t personally try to build a bridge between wannabe-crypto-users and hackers so I could deal with shitful sexism, misogyny and down-right crappy behavior.

I know most people would rather just delete a sexist webpage or image, apologize for the offensive comment, or shitty behavior and move on. Again.

But things aren’t changing for the better. And pasting anti-harassment rules on conference wikis doesn’t seem to be making a dent in obviously unacceptable behavior of some arseholes.

Yes, of course, there are arseholes in all communities. But some communities make sexists, misogynists, harassers and general arseholes truly unwelcome.

Unfortunately, the hacker community seems to flounder at making progress in the area of human relations.

Oh how familiar that sounds. The article is back, on a mirror site. Read it.

When Jeffery was arrested, police found his computer “in the process of being wiped clean”.

The court was told that he intended to publish the data, which included names, email addresses and telephone numbers on an online sharing site but later changed his mind.

The bad news: his actions probably scared away some women seeking an abortion. As the prosecutor in his case put it:

Mr Higgins said: “Clare Murphy states women who contact the charity are often in a vulnerable situation.

“They speak to teenagers who have not disclosed their pregnancy to their parents, women who have been victims of domestic violence and victims of sexual violence – many women for whom an unplanned pregnancy is a very private affair and would not wish to share this with others.

“The publication of the information would cause great anguish for women who contact the charity in confidence and would put some of these women at serious risk mentally and physically.”

That person is still a terrorist, even though the names he gathered never hit the ‘net.

hjhornbeck is right – he did hack into the records of all contacts with bpas, which offers a variety of services – but he did not release the records.

Look, though, at why the arsehole did it in the first place. A couple of his friends each made a decision not to his taste – as was their right – and he thought his manly manliness gave him to power to take revenge. So, still an arsehole then!

The femme dykes were constantly groped and told they just “Need[ed] the right cock”, the butch dykes were physically assaulted and told “If you want to be a man so much, then fight like one”, and the trans women suffered all of the above, and more. More than one woman was badly beaten, and we had to form escort pairs to escort people to their cars, or the bus/train station.

The straight and bi women who pretended they were gay (to get rid of persistent men) were given the same treatment as their dyke sisters. The men seemed to get particular glee out of targeting women who were deliberately seeking to avoid men.

Then, when most of us had decamped to the local gay scene, and settled in nicely, the city decided that bars and clubs should only be gay-friendly bars with access for all. I must add though, that lone women and groups of women were never turned away, even if they weren’t members of the LGBT community. It was a safety thing, and they rarely caused trouble.

So again, we went from having a safe place to socialise, to being scared to kiss or even hold hands because of the jeering, harassment, and disgusted looks.

We went back to the city last summer for a museum exhibition, and popped back to the Pink part of the city. We’d intended to go for a meal and a drink before our drive home. What we found was a string of deserted pubs, neglected looking public areas and street furniture, and a general air of abandonment.

Sometimes it feels like things are getting worse, not better. Anyone seeking ‘Safe space’ is mocked and insulted, told to “toughen up”. Nobody ever seems to wonder why some of us want/need a place where we don’t have to be constantly on guard.

The fact that it’s everywhere, on and offline, makes it feel incessant and inescapable.